In the height of the
Cold War, USS AMERICA was called upon to face down the Russian Bear in its own
back yard. USS AMERICA and embarked CVW-1 left Norfolk in the Fall of 1985
to participate in Ocean Safari, which involved challenging NATO to find the
AMERICA as it transited north of the British Isles en route to Vestfjord in
Norway. Meanwhile, the Soviets tried to tail AMERICA starting at VACAPES
where a Balzam Class AGI was waiting to "escort" the AMERICA Battle
Group. Through deception and high speed tactics, the Balzam was lost the
first night and AMERICA was on her own to face a second gauntlet of Soviet subs
and ships trying to "blockade" the GIUK gap while NATO and Soviet
aircraft were prowling the skies trying to find AMERICA.

Weather was on the side
of AMERICA with solid overcast skies and heavy seas. The British press was
making all sorts of claims that AMERICA couldn't possibly arrive without
detection and that big deck carriers were outmoded relics that couldn't operate
in the modern battle space. A bunch of reporters even chartered their own
helicopter to find AMERICA on their own.

They didn't count on the
crafty AMERICA team, which had plenty of tricks up its sleeves. CVW-1 and
AMERICA had already proven themselves in the North Sea in Operation Northern
Wedding in the Fall of 1982, so cold weather and pitching decks under leaden
skies were nothing new to the old hands still aboard. It was an eye opener
for the new folks though. SECNAV John Lehman was confident AMERICA would
prevail and even joined the ship to host his doubting NATO counterparts.

AMERICA used the night
and heavy seas to slip through the cordon of Soviet ships in the GIUK gap and
began flight ops the following day, intercepting NATO and Soviet aircraft and
ships at ranges up to 1,000 miles away in several directions, totally confusing
both the NATO and Soviet units intent on locating her. Soviet Bear D
surveillance aircraft were working the length and breadth of the GIUK gap
looking for the elusive Battle Group.

When NATO finally
launched her first assault wave, a VF-102 Tomcat, coming back from a 1200nm RECCE
mission to photograph a Soviet Kynda cruiser in the English Channel, was able to
slip in behind the gathering NATO armada and take out an RAF Tanker and its F-4
Phantom customers hundreds of miles from AMERICA in their assumed safe
marshalling area. The Tomcat then chased down a surveillance P-3 and an
RF-4 from behind, disrupting an entire sector.Meanwhile, while SECNAV
was enjoying his lunch, the reporters were hopelessly lost and crying for
help. Tomcats and tankers were launching in EMCON conditions and creating
an outer air battle grid that handily took on all comers.

Once the NATO exercise
concluded, AMERICA headed northeast to Norway where an even more daring tactic
was employed. AMERICA sailed up into Vestfjord, a huge fjord, and
conducted
flight operations, shielded from prying soviet surveillance by the steep fjord
walls. Tomcats launched and stayed below the cliffs until they reached the
open sea before climbing to intercept the prowling Soviet Bears, Badgers and
even Cub aircraft.

NATO tried an air
assault one more time, figuring they had AMERICA boxed. By then, an
amphibious ready group led by an LHA joined AMERICA. AMERICA stayed close
to the gray fjord walls while the LHA sailed in the wide open area, attracting
all the attention of the attacking NATO F-16 and A-10 aircraft.AMERICA had a grandstand
seat watching the NATO aircraft do their low level approaches and pop-up attacks
on the wrong ship.

The entire exercise was
but one of AMERICA's episodes that took her from Southeast Asia and combat in
Vietnam to the frigid north and temperate Med, through the Suez canal to the
Red Sea and Persian Gulf. What
better name for one fine ship of the line?

Dave Parsons

Dave was commissioned
into USMC and later transferred to USN after serving a Pentagon tour as a TACAIR
Analyst in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. After joining his first
fleet Tomcat Squadron, VF-102, he flew off USS AMERICA from 1982-1986 and
participated in two North Atlantic NATO deployments in 1982 and 1985 (Northern
Wedding and Ocean Safari) and three deployments to the Med/IO in 1982-1983, 1984
and 1986 including Operation Eldorado Canyon in the Gulf of Sidra. He left
USS AMERICA with over 500 traps in his logbook. He then served as Editor
of Approach Magazine at the Naval Safety Center, another fleet tour in Tomcats
with VF-32, participating in Operations Desert Shield/Storm, followed by another
Pentagon tour as the Air to Air Missile Requirements Officer in the Office of
the CNO before retiring in 1994. He then joined the consultant firm of
Whitney, Bradley & Brown, Inc. working weapons integration issues on Naval
Aviation aircraft including a lead role in integrating the LANTIRN pod onto the
F-14 Tomcat, which transformed its last ten years of operational service.
In 2003, he accepted a position wtih NAVAIR as the lead of an Innovation Cell
working to rapidly introduce capability to Special Operations and Naval Aviation
warfighter commands in support of the Global War on Terror. He is also the
author/coauthor of several books including his latest, "TOMCAT: Bye-Bye,
Baby...!", a gotta-have-it book loaded with incredible shots of F-14s
captioned with vignettes by the crew who flew them.